More Than You Needed
by KissKissCrush
Summary: Sequel to AS YOU WISH. In the midst of a personal tragedy a very unexpected visitor drops in on Aro and Bella just as their lives and fates swerve dramatically into the unknown.
1. This is Not Your Home Anymore

**Disclaimer: Obviously, I am not Stephenie Meyer since she would _never_ have Aro doing _those things_ to Bella so no more needs to be said about that.**

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AN~Oh, hey there, guys! Sooo, I've been off working on some original material since the beginning of April. I wrote drafts for three separate novels in that time one of which will hopefully hit the Kindle store sometime in the next few months. I will keep you updated for anyone interested in reading it. It will be cheap because I'm not a capitalist.

Now, I caught a vicious cold this week and my brain is completely plugged with snot making it impossible to continue work on my novels because they require much brain think. But I can't stop working entirely because I'm addicted to making stories. So I dug up some fics and thought I would bring them to you as they take much less concentration to write/edit.

Sorry that this is not a sequel to _Sunlight_. I wish I could make that happen.

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**1**

Even if Charlie knew I was still alive, it was past the point in which I would ever be able to return to Forks. Charlie knew there was something strange about me but I don't think his vague acceptance of that would extend to me looking like I was eighteen still when I was supposed to be closer to forty-five. I wondered if he had retired yet or intended to work until he died. I think, if he hadn't met Sue, it would have been the latter, but now I wanted to imagine that she had forced him to quit and they spend their time fishing and watching TV together.

There was no one who could tell me what was going on there. Jacob never went back either. Everyone who had known me as a human thought I was dead. All of my high school friends were married. Except for Jessica who died in a car accident during her first year of college. I knew that my immortality would be truly real to me only after people I knew started to die but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Even so, I had started searching obituaries ritualistically for the names of anyone I knew early on after we were settled. Aro tried to talk me out of it but I had to know. And I never would have known about Renee's cancer or that she had died the very year after we moved back to American. Aro had looked at me with such a painful depth of pity when I told him that I almost wanted to be mad but I let it go because he didn't try to tell me that he had told me so, he just held me until I stopped shaking and told me he was sorry. I knew he'd told me not to because he didn't want me to hurt and when it happened it was terrible for him to watch.

Renesmee had gone to college in about twelve different cities. She always looked young so nobody questioned her and she had more degrees than I knew existed. Jacob followed her, but as far as I had witnessed, there was never anything romantic between them. They were closer than family though. He was the only one of us who had aged at all, although, much slower, he now looked a lot older than Renesmee and would until he died while she remained young. The relationship would have become untenable at some point and maybe they both knew it and that was why they never acted on any feelings that may have been there after she was older.

Aro and I had kept our Baltimore apartment but we went back less and less. Especially after Jacob and Renesmee moved out and we had our own house finally. But I was thinking about going now. I just wasn't sure how that could happen. There were a million different scenarios but I wasn't sure how safe any of them would be. I felt like if he were somewhere that mattered to us it might change things. It was illogical. But it was my only idea as I couldn't leave him alone.

There was a garden in the back of our house but everything in it had died. It felt like the inside of my soul with its dry ground and the yellowed corpses of dead plants rising from it. I had let it die when Aro started to change and I enjoyed watching it wilt because I had no other outlet for my impotent rage at what was happening.

I heard a footstep but not a heartbeat behind me. I turned around, a fighting stance ready, I knew Vladimir and Stefan would never give up until Aro was dead but we had only seen them twice for a moment since Carcassonne. They were just checking in each time, to make sure I was still around and that we knew they were. As soon as I wasn't, they would swoop in. It was one of the reasons I was afraid to move him and why I couldn't leave.

But it wasn't them. It was something so much more infinitely dangerous that I hadn't let myself think about it. _Someone_ more dangerous. A person who could truly hurt me. Destroy my life. But my life was already destroyed and my reaction to his sudden appearance was so benign that he said my name like a question, as though not sure if it was actually me.

"Hi, Edward," I responded tonelessly. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know how he was alive. I had thought him dead so long ago and in relation to my life now, I had known him for so short a time, most of it while I was human that I felt only a vague connection to him now.

Neither of us spoke for a minute. What was there to say after twenty-six years?

Finally, he spoke. "I saw Renesmee, she gave me your address."

"Oh." I hadn't even thought about how he had managed to find me. Aro and I lived in seclusion for the most part and when we did interact with the human world, we used different last names in every city. Most of them were inside jokes. Baltimore. Carlisle. Notch. Thinking about our life was so painful I was glad I didn't need to breathe because I couldn't have just then and having Edward standing there staring at me wasn't helping. He was a stranger, I didn't want to tell him anything.

"She wouldn't tell me very much about you. She said I should ask you about your life myself," he looked so sad that I felt the frostiness around me melt a little.

But not much.

"Right. Well, this is a really bad time, actually, Edward—"

"Is there a good time? You're immortal, Bella. You have only time. I understand you've probably moved on after this long, but I think I deserve the truth about it and not to be brushed off."

He was right. This wasn't fair.

"Okay. What do you want to know?" I was irritated but I forced my voice to be calm and nice.

"Well, I assume, if you were alone, she would have just told me instead of being evasive . . ."

Part of me wanted to shout, "You know what, Edward? I thought you were _dead_. It's been a quarter of a century, this isn't any of your damned business." But that wasn't right. This wasn't his fault. But I still couldn't think about his reaction when he found out who I was married to. He would be disgusted and angry and for the first time I worried that he might become violent. Aro wasn't able to fight anyone right now.

"I'm married."

"Okay," he said, in a slightly choked voice, like he was swallowing a large pill that he'd been carrying around in his hand wondering if he'd have to take. "How long have you been married?"

Damn. I took a breath. It hurt. "Twenty-five years."

The calculation wasn't hard to do. It wasn't difficult to figure out I had gotten married a year after he supposedly died. It wasn't an unreasonable time frame. As long as you ignored how it all happened.

"Twenty-five years. That's . . . um, so you met someone after you and Jacob and Renesmee left Forks?"

I shook my head. "They left before the fighting broke out," I said, not giving any more information than I had to. Maybe if I delayed, something catastrophic would happen and I wouldn't have to confess what I'd done to him. I prayed for an asteroid.

"But you did leave Forks right after?"

"Yeah."

He couldn't read my mind but he had known me well enough to read my face and he knew I was hiding something.

"Alone?" his voice was a little shaky.

I mouthed, 'No.' And he just stared at me swallowing.

"Tell me, Bella."

"Edward, my husband is really sick—"

He looked thrown now, obviously this wasn't going in the direction he thought. "You . . . married a human?"

I shook my head. "He's a vampire."

"Who is it?" he looked a little desperate. He had to have been running through a list of all the male vampires in Forks that day. The nomads, his brothers, his father. I'm certain he did not settle on my actual husband though.

"Edward, please. He's very ill and I don't know what's wrong with him, I've been trying to figure it out but I can't leave him for very long he—he's so weak . . ."

His face softened. "Look, Bella, if it's someone, we know, like Jasper or Emmett . . . or Carlisle?" He looked really skeptical at this last one, "then it's okay, you should just tell me."

Oh. God. If he thought Carlisle was so far-fetched he was going to have the vampire equivalent of a heart attack when he found out who had really been sharing my bed all this time.

"It's not . . . any of them."

He looked relieved. "So, a nomad then? Well, that's not that big of a deal, Bella. You were alone—"

The look on my face cut him off as surely as if I had punched him in the stomach.

"No, Edward. Nobody who came to help us . . . "

I thought this clue was so detail-less that he wouldn't possibly put it together but a sudden and fierce comprehension came over his features, transforming them utterly and turning him from a beautiful teenage boy to a crazed monster in a moment. He shoved past me and went for our door. I tried to block him but we were about evenly matched in strength now and he was able to struggle against me.

"Edward, no! Please, he's sick! He can't defend himself right now and if you insist on fighting, you'll be fighting me. This isn't his fault, it's mine, it was all me!"

He shook my hands off and stepped back. "Was there something going on I didn't know about?" he asked like he had a throat full of nails.

"No! How could there have been? I was with you every second. You know that. How could you even think that?" I was a little insulted. I may have done regrettable things after I thought he was dead but I wasn't an adulterer.

"Because, Bella. You . . . said his name in your sleep. More than once."

I had dreams, I remembered them but I had no idea Edward knew anything about it.

"And don't ask me if I'm sure because it was obvious. And it was pretty obvious you weren't . . . just _talking_ to him in your dream either. You were _touching yourself_. I woke you up but I didn't say anything because I thought it would upset you. You didn't seem to remember. But you did, didn't you?"

I was looking past him vaguely. I couldn't look at him directly.

"I almost went for him that day on the battlefield because of what he was thinking when we walked up there with Renesmee. He knew I could hear him, Bella. It was sick. And he just smiled at you . . . like that. I should have killed him right then."

"What? You were going to_ kill_ someone for _thinking_ something?"

Edward's volatile nature which had attracted me a bit as a teenaged human was just frustrating and exhausting now.

"Maybe it was just thinking then. But you were both just waiting for a chance it looks like . . ."

That. Was_ crazy_.

"That's ridiculous, of course, not! I didn't even know he—"

"Oh, but you knew you did!"

"I didn't know anything, Edward! We were the only people alive! Everyone around us was dead! It was terrifying! He kept me from going insane. He took care of me every second and he's never stopped! _He saved my life._ And now he might be dying. If he dies, I will die."

He recoiled a little and just shook his head, still looking disgusted. I had imagined this look on his face many times during the nine months Aro and I were on the run. It haunted me then, now though, indignation and rage filled me. How dare he say all of this when I already told him Aro was sick. I wanted to hurt him so badly but right then I heard a weak call from upstairs, we both did.

"I have to go, please just leave. You know where Renesmee is, I don't know what you need from me. Please, go." I opened the door and dashed for the stairs. I could hear Aro calling for me. It tore my heart how thin his voice was. I heard Edward's footsteps on the stairs and I didn't care. If he wanted to come watch me try helplessly to care for my dying husband then fine, if he wanted to suffer, I wouldn't stop him. No one had ever been able to stop Edward from suffering under his own power. Aro had once said he hated a self-loathing vampire and now I knew why. This was ridiculous. He didn't care if Aro was dying or if we loved each other or that we had been married for ten times the amount of time I had even known him, he just wanted to torture himself and I was willing to let him.

I got to the door and slowed. I didn't want to run into the room looking crazed. I made myself open the door carefully. He was where he always was, sitting in a chair by the window, staring outside, his face blank. When I came in, even though I had slowed and tried to calm myself, I knew he must have heard at least some of what was going on. He looked frightened and disoriented. I fought to keep my face neutral. He looked afraid a lot lately and I really didn't know what he was experiencing because he wouldn't tell me. He looked relieved to see me though and that was good. I went to him and knelt in front of the chair. He put his hand on my cheek.

"I heard shouting. Are you okay?" the concern in his voice made me want to go back into the hallway and tear Edward's eyes out of his head. But I wouldn't have needed to go that far, he was standing in the doorway. I stood, my stance became protective and intimidating immediately. I glared at him. If he wanted to invade our privacy, I wasn't going to be friendly with him. I felt Aro tug my hand weakly. I looked down at him.

"I should lay down . . ."

I looked at Edward again, still standing there dumbly, watching me and Aro together. I wanted to shout at him to leave. I didn't want him seeing this, seeing my husband who didn't matter at all to him, in such an undignified state.

I put my forehead on the top of his head for a moment. Then I decided I didn't care what Edward thought. I would just ignore him. I lifted Aro's arm and placed it around my neck and then lifted him easily from the chair. I carried him almost everywhere now. He wore pajamas pretty much all the time now. He didn't go anywhere. I remembered how much he used to make fun of mine and held him a little closer to me. I helped him lay down on the bed and put the blankets over him. They were unnecessary of course but it made me feel better, like the fabric could somehow protect him, like a shield, from what was happening. My shield was useless and it infuriated me irrationally. He touched my face and smiled at me. He never laughed anymore. It was like half of him had already died.

"Thank you, my Isabella." I couldn't stop a dry sob coming from me. His face became worried again and I hated that Edward had come here and upset me because it took everything I had not to be sad in front of Aro on the best days which were getting fewer all the time.

"You should leave me. You shouldn't do this. Go stay with Renesmee and Jacob, you don't have to stay here for me, I hate to see you unhappy." His voice was so sweet it hurt me. This was an Aro only I ever saw. He said this same thing or something similar several times a week now.

"I'm not going anywhere so you can just shut up about it. Sulpicia was right, you _are_ really annoying!" I said, forcing my voice into steadiness again.

He almost laughed and was worse than him not laughing at all. It was soft and lacked substance, not like his old laugh, when I never knew what it would sound like, completely insane most of the time but I loved it. It was him. It now made me feel a sick, cruel moment of hope that he would get better. "I'm sorry," he said and closed his eyes. I kissed his face and and stood. He was holding my hand but squeezed and let go when he felt me rise.

I went back into the hallway. At some point, Edward had retreated away from the open door. I closed it quietly behind me then I looked at him like I was going to rip his heart out of his chest. I might. He'd just seen mine get torn out the same way it did every day now.

"Happy?" I asked, putting as much venom in my voice as I could. I stormed past him and down the stairs again. He followed me meekly.

We got into the kitchen and I yanked open the refrigerator. It was full of IV bags of blood, I pulled one out and emptied it into a cup then set about heating it slowly in the microwave. I had learned exactly how to do it the same way all people with sick family members learn to give medications and operate machines and recognize the signs of death coming for their loved ones so they can call for help. Except there was no help for us. I couldn't leave so I had to just watch him die because I had no idea what was happening to him.

By stopping and starting the microwave and swirling the glass periodically in between to keep it from seizing I got it to the right temperature where it wouldn't cool down enough to be undrinkable by the time I got upstairs. When it was done, I pulled it out and brushed past Edward who was standing in the door to the kitchen with a slightly ashamed look on his face.

"I'll be back. I'd prefer that you not follow me this time. He deserves privacy," I said tightly. "If you want to talk, you can go in there," I nodded to the living room, "and I'll be right back."

I climbed the stairs and back to our room. He looked like he was sleeping, but of course he wasn't. He kept falling into these weird fugue states. They were getting longer but he always came out of them easily so I thought that was good.

I sat down and he opened his eyes. "Hello, pretty Bella." He thought calling me "pretty beautiful" was funny for some reason.

"Drink this," I said, holding the glass out.

He made a face. He hated reheated blood but I didn't care. He couldn't hunt and I wasn't dragging a deer in here. "Do it," I said fiercely. "I'll hold you down."

He took the glass, eyeing me affectionately.

"Maybe that's what I want."

But even his flirting didn't have a lot weight to it.

After he drank it I took the glass. I took a breath and then said, "Someone's here."

He seemed to catch by my tone that it wasn't Jacob or Renesmee.

"It's not them either," I said. Stefan and Vladimir. I hoped everyday that they wouldn't hear of Aro's illness somehow. "It's Edward."

The surprise he exhibited was about what I expected. "How . . . ?

"I don't even know, I haven't had a chance to ask yet. He's downstairs."

"Is this why you were sad? Was he cruel to you?"

"He was Edward."

He nodded. I had slowly shown him bits of my life over the years and he knew my experience with Edward as well as anyone except for select bits of our Honeymoon. But he saw those from Edward anyway so it didn't really matter.

"I could still kill him if it came to that."

I laughed. "I would actually love to see you rip someone's head off right now. But we should probably leave Edward's intact for now. He's in shock. Finding out how much time had passed and then finding Renesmee all grown up and you and me . . . "

"It _would_ be hell to be without you, thinking about you for twenty-six years only to find out you were married to someone _so_ handsome and charming," he said nodding in mock sympathy for Edward.

"You're an idiot." I kissed him and left the room.

Downstairs Edward was walking slowly around the living room. We had been in this house the longest and it looked it. It was obvious that a family lived here. Pictures and keepsakes cluttered every surface.

Several pictures of Aro and me on our wedding day. He'd made me wear an opulent white dress and I was glad later because it looked really nice in the pictures. The largest one was of us sitting on a branch up in a tree, looking at each other and not the camera, smiling like giddy teenagers. I had been almost reluctant to put it up because even though the skirt on my dress hid it, he had been actually pinching me on the butt at the moment the picture was taken. But no one else knew that so I put it up.

There were pictures of Renesmee graduating high schools once she had stopped growing enough to go. There were a few of those. Then the colleges. Accelerated programs at each which she passed with ease, double majoring at most. I wondered if he was looking for wedding pictures. Maybe of her and Jacob. I didn't know what Renesmee had told him.

There was a picture of Aro and Renesmee from when she was still small. They were laughing. That was all, just a close up of their faces together, laughing. It was my favorite picture. I had another print of it upstairs in our bedroom.

He found the few pictures of the Cullen family. The ones I had taken from my room. Then in the back, the large black and white one of himself. Still here among my loved ones. I wondered how he felt about that.

When he got to a picture of Aro and me sitting by each other on a couch he stopped and this was the first time he'd really reacted to any of the images. We weren't doing anything spectacular in it but I knew why it made him pause, it made everyone who saw our pictures do the same. I was reading a book, laying on my side and Aro was sitting on the opposite side of the couch, his hand rested on my ankle and even though he was holding a book, he wasn't looking at it. His head was just barely turned in my direction and the look on his face was so revealing it was actually uncomfortable to look at even for me. If anyone doubted that Aro was a being capable of love, this picture would have erased that idea. The love was so plain on his face it was almost obscene. Many people on visiting our house a second time said they could have sworn the photo wasn't in black and white before and asked if we'd switched it out. Aro's love for me made people see color. We didn't know Renesmee had taken it until she gave it to us in this frame for Christmas one year. Aro glared at it when he saw which made me love it even more. I loved anything that annoyed him because the look on his face was hilarious. I wasn't always able to suppress the amusement that I felt seeing it which usually resulted in him calling me childish and leaving the room in a huff.

Finally, he turned to me. "You had a life . . ." The words "without me" seemed to follow this statement inaudibly and swam through the air between us like a desolate ghost.

"I didn't know you were still alive, Edward. If I had, I would have dug you out with my bare hands."

"What if Alice had shown you this life somehow?"

I couldn't possibly answer this question. What did he want me to say? Yes, I would totally go back? No. It was a terrible question.

"I wouldn't have left you buried . . ."

That was not the best thing to say, he looked angry.

"But you would have gone with him?"

"I didn't say that. It's not fair to be asking me these questions, Edward. If I had dug you out, of course I wouldn't have run away with Aro because I wouldn't have been alone. He would have gone home and," I took a painful breath, "none of this would have happened."

"But you had feelings for him while we were together," he accused.

What was worse: feelings or lust? I went for honesty. "No, not feelings. Of course not, I didn't even know him, Edward. I loved you completely."

"Past tense . . ."

"What?"

"_Loved._"

"Yes,_ loved._ Do you expect me to tell you I still love you after you've just seen my home," I gestured around at my life with Aro, cataloged in every picture, "And my husband upstairs dying of something we don't understand? Huh, Edward? Are you really that selfish!? Jacob and Renesmee love him too. He's been in our lives for twenty-five years. That's a really long time. What do you want me to say?"

"Why aren't they here then if they _love_ him so much?" he said cruelly.

"Because they don't know!" I was screaming now. "Because I didn't think all of us should have to watch him die! Because they have lives and I'd like them to live those lives!" I was panting, shaking.

He was standing stiffly in place, hands in fists at his sides. He made for the door, brushing past me, then before I could react he grabbed my arm, pulled me to him and kissed me. I reached my hands up and raked my nails down his face as hard as I could.

"Get the fuck out of my house and never come back."

He tried to say something but I just starting screaming obscenities at him and throwing things which did him no harm but made a nice mess on my carpet. All of my fear and frustration about Aro's condition fueling my tantrum. He finally disappeared out the back door, leaving it open.

I stood in the destruction of my living room for a moment and then went and closed the door. I went upstairs and into our bedroom. I undressed completely and got into bed next to him. He opened his eyes and when he saw I was naked, he smiled and pulled me too him with his weakened arms.

"Why am I the one wearing pajamas all the time now?"

"I don't know. I don't know why you're wearing _anything_ while there's a naked girl in bed with you."

"Bella, I'm not . . . I'm so . . . dizzy."

But I silenced and carefully took his clothes off.

"We can just lay here if you want. But I miss your skin . . ."

He sighed, pressing weak kisses to my face and hands. After a few minutes he gently communicated without words for me to move on top of him. I certainly had enough energy and his hands seemed to gain strength as I took him inside of me and moved carefully so I didn't hurt him. All the confusion and pain left his face as we bonded through the perfect connection of our bodies. Like we had always done. He said my name, his voice stronger than it had been in weeks, as he came. I finished then myself to the sound of it, hope I couldn't suppress, flowing through me. I didn't collapse on top of him but rolled slowly to the side and wrapped my arms around him loosely.

"I didn't hurt you did I?"

"No. Not hurt. Whatever is wrong with me, I'm certain you could heal it."

"You think I could fuck you back to life?"

"Maybe."

Then silence. And what he said to break this silence was so unexpected I felt almost betrayed by him even considering it.

"Edward still loves you."

"So?"

"So I might die, Bella. You know it. I'm getting worse every day."

"Shut up." Somehow I kept my voice steady.

"No. It's time to talk about this," he insisted. "What are you going to do when that happens?"

"Nothing. Because it won't. I'll figure this out. You're not going to fucking die on me, Aro."

"You have a very dirty mouth today, my wife." But he was smiling tiredly.

"I swear, Aro. I will figure this out."

"And if you don't and I die. I don't want you to be alone."

"What are you saying? You want me to be with _Edward?_ That's . . . crazy. I don't even know him. That was a million years ago. Plus he just acted like a complete asshole."

"I heard."

"If you heard all of that then you know I love you and I wouldn't give up my life with you."

"I just don't want you to feel guilty if it happens."

"It won't."

"You always think things are so simple." He kissed my forehead. "If you try to accept that I might not be here forever, I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure I am, okay?"

"I"m not ready, we've had so little time. I want more," I said. I was aware I sounded spoiled and I didn't care.

"How much more?"

"I don't know, a few hundred years? I should be ready to kill you myself by then."

"I'll let you if you don't like me anymore. I promise."

"That's . . . very sweet of you. I think." I touched his hair absentmindedly and then did a double take and pulled it out toward me. "Aro," I said, my voice was quavering. "Your hair. There's _grey_ in it."

I lifted it so he could see. He stared at it, his eyes brighter and more lucid than I had seen them in a month. I flew off the bed.

"I'm calling Sulpicia. I don't care what you want."

I ran into the hallway and tried to remember where I had left my cell phone. I heard Aro calling me but I ignored him. I found it on the couch. I was unconscious of the ridiculousness of standing in my living room naked, making a phone call. I scrolled through my numbers, it seemed to take forever to find "S" and then when I did I just stared at her name. What would I say? Aro's dying? Aro's _aging_ somehow? Come quick and . . . do what? But I didn't know what else to do. Humans called 911 and I called the Volturi.

A soft-voiced young male voice answered. Under Sulpicia's rule, the bimbos were out. At least in female form. There was always a beautiful boy working the desk when we went to see her now.

"Hi. Um. This is Isabella . . . Swan. I need to speak with Sulpicia."

"She's in a meeting, can I—"

"This is absolutely an emergency. Life or death. Er, immortality or death. Whatever. I need her help. Now. Please."

"I will . . . see if she's finished."

Silence. Too long. So long I felt like I would crush my phone in my hand before he came back.

I was intensely relieved when I heard Sulpicia's cool, strange voice and not the male secretary.

"Bella? What's going on?" There was a hint of annoyance in her voice, like she suspected this was either me or Aro being melodramatic.

"It's Aro!" I said trying to sound rational and not insane so she would listen to me. "He's dying or something Sulpicia. He's been sick for weeks and he wouldn't let me call you but now it's changed and I had to."

"Sick how?" She sounded concerned at least now. And it relieved me and also worried me. I knew vampire sickness couldn't be common or good.

"He's weak and he has trouble eating and he goes in and out of these weird like mini comas every once in awhile . . . "

"Can you wake him from them?"

"Yes."

"Does he remember you after?"

"Yes, every time."

"How long has this been happening?"

"Three months."

"What didn't you call me sooner?" She sounded a little angry.

"Aro wouldn't let me!"

"So what? Since when do his wives do anything he says?"

She was right, I should have called her.

"Do you have any idea what's going on?" I asked hoping that she knew and also that she didn't if it was bad. Then I could go on hoping.

She was quiet for so long I thought she had hung up but I looked at my phone and the timer for the phone call was still going. I heard a voice and quickly put it back to my ear.

"Bella?"

"Yes?"

"Did you hear what I said?"

"No, sorry, I was . . . nevermind. What was it?"

"I said I might know. But, Bella, it isn't good."

A small, awful noise came out of me.

"Bella? Don't lose me here. It's not absolute so do not freak out and do not tell Aro about this. Just tell him I'm coming. I have meetings today so it will be tomorrow night before I can get there."

"There's something else," I said weakly. "His hair is turning grey."

A pause.

"I'll be there tonight. Do not do anything else and do not move him or feed him anything. Do you understand, Bella?"

"Yes," I said and I heard the tremor in my voice and hated it next to Sulpicia's strong, full tones. But the sudden change in her arrival time filled me with the kind of fear I hadn't felt since I first heard the Volturi were coming to kill Renesmee. Now I was praying they would get here fast enough to save a different loved one.

I hung up and went back upstairs.

"Sulpicia says she'll be here—" I stopped. He was staring at the ceiling but his eyes were glassy and lifeless. There was blood everywhere, bright and horrible against his pale skin, staining the sheets and coating the lower half of his face.

I raced to the bed, yelling his name. I took his hand and it was limp and heavy. I shook his shoulder and his head fell to the side.

"Aro, please," I begged. Not knowing what else to do I just slapped him across the face. He took a gasping breath that gurgled from the blood in his throat but he was conscious again. He looked at the blood and then at me. And for the first time I saw real fear in him. Not the fear or confusion he'd had since the illness started but the real crimson fear of death.

He was the one who needed to accept that he might die. I had already done it and that's why my face looked exactly like his did now whenever I left this room.

"Sulpicia will be here tonight."

"I love you, Isabella." His voice was sort of glow-y. Far away and angelic.

"I know. Just please don't say it like that. You're going to be fine, she said you would."

He knew I was lying but he still looked at me with an expression exactly like the one in the picture of us on the couch. I had never seen it in person. I felt a drop of slow liquid run down my face. I didn't have to touch it to know I was crying blood, like I had in Paris.

The last time I lost him.

We stared at each other, both of our faces streaked with red, just waiting for the sun to go down.

* * *

END NOTES: Okay. So this was written about six months ago. I actually started it directly after finishing AYW but never finished it because _Sunlight_ happened. This was at the height of my **AroLove** and I will admit that _I cried so much_ writing this because I really didn't know what was going to happen and it's _Aro_ being all sick and stuff. So Sad!

There are about six chapters of this so far but I will try to bang out the rest of it because I've already written the ending and I really like it and I'd like you to be able to read it.

Anyway, I hope you liked this, nice to see you all again!

P.S. I actually feel a little bit bad for what I've done to Edward here. Maybe I've gone too far at last . . .


	2. Please

AN~All right. Shit's about to get real weird now, kids. You'll need to suspend your sweet disbelief for this story because the accepted limits of _Twilight_ vampire mythology have no meaning beyond this point. You're about to enter _The Twilight Twilight Zone_.

Also, I. can't. stop. coughing. ouch. **_h__elp_**. *miserable/so sleepy*

* * *

**2**

It was just after nine when we heard a noise downstairs. I was off the bed immediately and instead of taking the stairs, I jumped over the railing on the staircase and landed on the island in the middle of the kitchen below. I streaked into the living room my mouth already open to say that Aro was upstairs. But it wasn't Sulpicia. Jacob was there in the middle of the room. He was looking around at all of the pictures like he'd never been here before. Like Edward had just done.

"Jacob?"

He turned to me and I got an idea of what he might look like as a vampire because his face was completely bloodless. Someone must have told him. Was it Edward? Why would he do that? Spite? I knew Jacob cared about Aro but I didn't think he'd this upset. He looked as bad as I probably did. I'd have expected Renesmee to have been here first.

"He's okay right now. Sulpicia's coming. She said she'd be here tonight. I thought you were her actually. I'm glad you're here though," I added.

"What? Who's okay?"

"Aro, he's . . . you don't know? Why are you here?"

"He's what?"

"He's . . . I don't know. He's sick. He's been sick for months but it got worse today and I called Sulpicia. She thinks she knows what's wrong."

"I didn't think vampires got sick . . ."

"Neither did I. I'm scared, Jake. There's something really wrong."

"I'm sorry about this, Bella, but I'm not here with good news either."

I had a sensation then like what you experience as a human when hit by an unexpected cold rush of air. Renesmee wasn't here. Something was wrong.

"Renesmee's . . . gone somewhere."

"She's what?" I couldn't comprehend this right now. "What are you talking about gone?"

"She's missing sort of. But I don't think she's in danger just now."

"How do you know that?"

But he didn't have a chance to answer because that was when Sulpicia came in the back door, looking unbelievably out of place in our very cozy little human kitchen. She had three people with her, all wearing hooded black cloaks. Two were large and bulky and third was petite, much shorter than Sulpicia and the other two. I thought it was a woman until they moved into the light and dropped their hoods. It was a very old male vampire. He was the oldest vampire I'd ever seen based on human years. His skin looked more like bleached silk than the shimmering granite of ours and his hair was a glossy, mesmerizing silver.

I just started at them stupidly. I'd almost forgotten why they was there with the news about Renesmee and the appearance of this unusual immortal in my home.

"Bella," she said sharply. "Where is he?"

"He's upstairs," I said numbly.

"After you," she said impatiently when I didn't move.

I turned mechanically and went for the stairs. Sulpicia and the old vampire followed me. The large guards stayed in the living having a staring contest with Jacob. I didn't need to open the door because I'd left it open but even so I got a view of the room with fresh eyes and when I heard a gasp behind me I knew it looked as awful as I thought it did.

He'd had tried to sit up and succeed poorly, he was slumped sideways a little, his head unsteady in an upright position. The sheets were still soaked with blood because Sulpicia had said not to move him. I had washed most of the blood off of him though and carefully redressed him so he'd have some dignity even though the shirt was covered in blood anyway.

"He was vomiting but you said not to move him . . ."

She just nodded not looking at me. She was worried and it terrified me beyond everything which had happened so far. I should have called her sooner.

"Hannick?"

She must have been talking to the old man who immediately went to Aro's bedside. I just stood there, not sure what to do. Aro was fighting to keep his head up and his eyes open. I wanted to go to him but I didn't want to interrupt this man whoever he was in case he had an answer.

I waited, concentrating on the single heartbeat in the house. Jacob. I was so glad he was here but the news he'd brought was also terrifying. But he said he thought she was safe. I wondered if maybe he was overreacting. I couldn't think about it now. I had to think about Aro and the man who was now rising from the edge of bed with a grim face. Aro had closed his eyes and sank back down flat on the pillows. Now I did go over to him, as Hannick moved away. But I was afraid to touch him. I sat carefully.

He inhaled and opened his eyes.

"My Bella . . ." he said and then he started throwing up again and someone had their arms around me and were pulling me away as I screamed and tried to get back to him, just to touch him for a moment before they took him from me. But they were dragging me backwards into the hallway. I felt a heartbeat against my back and I knew it was Jacob. What the hell did he think he was doing? I struggled harder but he held on.

"Stop, Bella. They're trying to help him." He sounded shaken and weird.

I sagged in his arms, a long, wounded cry coming from me. He was dying. I knew it. I had seen it in their faces before Hannick even examined him. I had heard it in her voice before she got here. Someone shut the door and I started fighting Jacob again.

"Let me go, Jacob! I should be in there with him! He needs me!" I was flailing like I had grabbed an electric fence but he somehow held on.

"They don't want you in there for a reason, Bella. Just let them help him, please."

He had almost convinced me until I heard Aro scream. It was the most chilling sound I had ever been unfortunate enough to hear. I swung around and felt my arm hit Jacob in the face. As he fell away from me, I apologized and then turned to the door but Sulpicia was there blocking it. I hadn't even heard the door. She didn't need to try to stop me because I froze at the sight of her.

"We need to talk, Bella."

Jacob moved away down the hall and she gently guided me into the guest room across from our bedroom.

"What's wrong with him, Sulpicia?" I asked as she shut the door to the hallway. She was looking down. I wasn't used to seeing her look anything less than completely confident. It rattled the sanity I had left and I knew her next words would determine if that sanity stayed or fled altogether.

"Hannick thinks, and I agree although I don't have first hand experience with it, that he has something called, Humuno Syndrome."

"Okay. What is it?"

"No one really knows exactly. Hannick says that as far as he knows, this is only the fifth case in our history. He has documented them all himself when possible. A Japanese vampire named it. Two of the known cases have been in Japan."

"How old is Hannick?"

Maybe those other four were only in the last few hundred years. Maybe it was more common than he knew and someone else knew something more. In Japan maybe. We'd go to fucking Japan.

She sighed, maybe guessing at my desperate line of thought and then said, "Older than Aro."

"What's going to happen to him, Sulpicia?" I silently begged her to remove this awful sentence, to tell me we had a big plan and Aro would be fine.

"He'll die—"

I made a choking sound.

"—if we do nothing—"

"So we can do something? Let's do it right now, come on what is it?"

She was shaking her head very slightly. "Bella, it isn't good. It would change him. And he would die anyway."

"Right away? What do you mean?"

"No, he would live for a while but it's untenable and I can't say how long it would last even if we did it and somehow succeeded."

"But he'll definitely die if we don't. That's what you said. You said he'd die. Why are we even talking about this? If it's possible to save him, we need to do it!"

I was yelling at her and she was watching me with a naked pity that made me furious. I wanted to hit her for coming here and not saving him, for killing him with her incomprehensible diagnosis.

"It would be incredibly painful, Bella, and we can't give him a sedative while we do it because they don't work on us. The procedure itself might kill him. It is very unlikely this will work. You need to understand this."

"I don't care. If there's a chance, we're doing it," I said stubbornly.

"You did hear me when I said it would be painful? I'm not talking about vampire transformation, Bella. Worse than that," she was starting to sound a little desperate herself but my face wasn't changing and her fear turned to a slow-building rage. I knew she thought I was selfish to put him through a thing that even if it didn't kill him immediately, wouldn't keep him alive for long either.

"I'm sorry," I said dropping my face into my hands. "I love him. I can't lose him yet, please . . . I need more time."

I was surprised when she hugged me.

"All right. Your wolfie friend will need to leave though, he won't like what's going to happen here. Do you have neighbors?"

"Not close," I said and I knew it was because he would be screaming. I blocked this out and we left the room together.

I went downstairs and found Jacob in the kitchen, leaning against the counter. He stood up straight when he saw me, his expression a silent question.

"They think it's this really rare disease that only Hannick, that old man, has ever seen."

"I didn't know you could get diseases."

"Neither did I."

"So what does it do?" he asked quietly.

"They don't really know how it works, they just know he'll die," my voice had a perverse flatness to it.

He didn't respond. He started to hug me but I stepped back.

"They think there's a treatment."

"That's good, right? You don't look like you think it's good . . ."

"Sulpicia says it's painful. And it might kill him anyway."

"But if it doesn't it'll fix it?"

I shook my head, biting my lower lip. "He'll still die, it'll just take longer."

"How long?"

"I don't know. She said it will change him but we haven't figured it all out yet," I took a breath, I didn't want to do this, I needed someone here to back me but I wasn't going to disobey her orders right now. "Jake, you need to leave."

"What? Why?"

"I don't know. Sulpicia just said that you wouldn't like what we're going to do so I need you to please leave because I don't care what it is, we're doing it. Please, Jake."

"Well if I know your kind, it probably involves innocent people being killed."

I hadn't thought about that. He was probably right. Why else would Sulpicia ask him to leave. I felt sick but I fought it back. I just pleaded with him silently.

"If you think you know where Renesmee is, can you please go find her for me?"

He didn't look happy about this request either.

"I think I know where she is, but I'm not going to find her. She's made her choice."

Before I could answer he left quickly through the back door. Upstairs, I heard Aro scream again. I put my hand to my mouth. He was going to scream more and it would be my fault. I jumped from the ground back up to the hallway in a reversal of my earlier descent.

Sulpicia was standing in the doorway. The two guards were inside now, standing silent by the window. They had taken all of the blankets off the bed and left Aro laying there in blood stained pajamas, staring mutely at the ceiling. I didn't know what they were doing to make him scream and I didn't ask. Sulpicia turned to me. She looked angry again.

"We need to discuss what's going to happen before you make a decision—"

"I've made my decision."

"No. You'll make it when you've heard everything. Look at him, Bella."

I was looking at him, I didn't know what she was talking about. She grabbed my upper arm and I realized how strong she was. She dragged me to the foot of the bed like I was a petulant toddler. She didn't let go when we got there.

"_Look at him_." She wasn't yelling but her voice was scary anyway.

His shirt, which had been white, was mostly red now. It was stiff in some places from earlier and wet and sticky, clinging to him in others where the fresh blood hadn't dried yet. Blood had saturated his hair making it look clumpy and slick. Someone had tried to wipe the blood from his face but not very well. It was smeared and drying unevenly everywhere below his cheeks. I was jarringly reminded of that awful vision of us I'd had in Baltimore when I saw us sitting in a bathtub full of blood and not water, our bodies streaked red as we laughed like gluttonous monsters, bathing in the fluids of our many victims. This was more punishment for all of that. Now I got to watch him die painfully and terribly.

Sulpicia was shaking my arm to make sure I was listening.

"What we think is happening is that his body is basically fighting itself. His cells are rejecting the venom that made him immortal. It's why he's aging and why he can't keep blood down," she said and I noticed incongruously how beautiful her voice was even while explaining to me the gruesome way in which my once immortal love was dying.

"What's the treatment?"

"Changing him."

I turned to her, shaking off her hand.

"You said that. What does it mean?" I sounded really bitchy but I didn't care. I was ready to know.

"It's sort of like a human blood transfusion."

I squinted at her, tilting my head a little. That didn't sound that terrible.

"And a heart transplant."

"What do you mean? Why would he need a different heart?"

"Because, the venom isn't keeping him alive anymore, he needs something that will. A working heart. And blood."

"So you're going to . . . make him human?"

"No. He'll still have a vampire body, just without any venom in it."

"I don't understand."

"This is why I said he wouldn't live long. A human heart isn't be strong enough to keep a body like ours going for very long."

"How long?"

"A year."

God.

"But how do you know all of this if it's only happened five times?"

"Hannick knows, he's been studying it." She paused. "Bella, this hasn't happened in about twelve hundred years. So it's mostly guessing and math. It's how Galileo knew of the structure of the universe before we could go into space to see it. This disease is as mysterious as space was then but, if he dies like this, we have better technology than ever before. We would be able to study him. Maybe know why this happens. Cure it."

My head snapped around toward her like I'd been slapped across the face. I was trying to save him and she was mad at _me_ when she was just waiting around for him to die so they could cut him into fucking pieces!

"It's only happened five times, why does a cure matter!?"

"Don't you wish there was a cure right now?"

I looked away from her. Fuck her. That wasn't fair.

"When can we do it?"

"We're not done yet," she said and the coolness I heard in her voice told me that this incident was going to destroy any friendship we had. I didn't care. "He'll have a vampire's body but he won't really_ be_ a vampire anymore because he won't have any venom. Not based on what we've guessed. No super speed, no super strength. He won't be able to read minds. He'll be basically a walking corpse only he won't rot. And he'll die when the heart can't support the weight and demands of his heavy vampire body anymore. He'll be like . . . a zombie I think humans call them now."

"A zombie? But that's not . . . I thought you meant he would actually be alive still."

"He will, Bella. But not in the same way. The Aro you know is a vampire. What is he without those things?"

"He's my husband."

She shook her head, frustrated that she wasn't changing my mind.

"He'll have _human blood_ in his veins, you fool. Think about that. You'll likely kill him before he dies of this!"

"Then you don't know me," I said rudely. I thought of something else. Something that would likely just infuriate her further but since she was already pissed I just asked. "You said that he'll die when the heart gives out. Can't we just do it again then? Get him a new heart whenever he needs one . . .?"

I was pretty sure she was going to hit me but I stood still trying to look unafraid.

"_No_. The fact that you're even considering this once is bad enough! The only way he'd survive it now is because there's still enough venom in him that he'd be able to heal before his body completely rejected the new tissue or collapsed from the damage we'll have to do to accomplish the transplant in the first place. Although he won't be a human, he'll be as mortal as they are, it would kill him for sure."

"When can we do it?" I asked again.

She looked at me coldly and I knew the last bit of affection she may have ever had for me had just evaporated. "You're doing the wrong thing, Bella."

Then she walked away and into the corner where she started giving instructions to the two guards. Hannick handed them a list and they left. I stood at the foot of the bed watching Aro laying there incapacitated. His eyes were open but not all the way. He looked about as dead as you can look and not be.

I was breaking a promise to myself that I had made a long time ago about letting him go if he ever wanted to leave or if it was best for him. I was disappointed that I didn't turn out to be as selfless as I thought I was then. But I had known Aro longer than any person aside from Jacob. And he knew me as no one else ever would.

When he died, I would become something else. It loomed at the back of my mind, unclear, changing. It looked dark. I didn't want to know what it was. I put my hands on his lower legs. He didn't respond to my touch but it made me feel slightly calmer, more resolved.

But what if Sulpicia was right? What if I did want to kill him? What if he was unrecognizably different when he was no longer a vampire?

What if _he_ was _my_ singer?

* * *

END NOTES: Yup.


	3. Lost

AN~*sigh* Yesterday was . . . butt. It was a butt sandwich. But it somehow led me to editing my Harry Potter crossover Aro/Ginny story so that's . . . yeah. [Insert "coming attractions" music with confusing trailer involving Aro clapping his hands like a school girl while seeing magic for the first time. Also, Cullenz doing thing.]

Okay. Um, this pretty intense for the next few chapters.

/warning without spoilers

* * *

**3**

"You," she said, turning to me with a look of deep contempt. "You're going to hold his legs. If you insist upon torturing him this way, I insist on you seeing it."

"I wasn't going to leave," I said darkly. We'd been waiting for hours and I was getting more agitated as the time passed because he definitely wasn't looking any better. I sighed and she glared at me. "When are they coming back?"

"I can't see the future, Bella. You'll just have to wait like the rest of us," she said coldly.

I pretended like her attitude didn't bother me because I didn't want to think about how much it would hurt later having her hate me. I could only think of Aro, of keeping him alive so that I could keep him mine. I didn't care if I was being selfish, I was crazed with the fear of never hearing him say my name again or touch my face like he always did or call me his.

It was well past midnight before they returned. They had several things which looked like industrial suitcases with sharp, squared corners. And a heart monitor. A crazy thing to see here where at the moment, no heart beat in this house.

And then the last thing. The most vital part of this terrible puzzle. I knew it was coming and I had been actively suppressing the thought of it during those hours that we waited. The second guard member brought in a teenaged girl. Her hands were bound and she had a gag pulled tight across her cheeks. I felt dizzy. I almost vomited myself seeing her terrified expression and hearing her ragged breathing around the cloth jammed between her teeth. I felt day-old blood rise in my throat and I swallowed it painfully.

"Stop!" I said, against my will. We didn't have time to wait but still . . . "Not her, please. Let me find someone else."

Sulpicia gave me a smug look and set a hand on top of the girl's head. "And then what? Just let her go? Look at this scene, Bella. Look at my eyes and his eyes and _yours!_ All of them crimson! What do you think she'll tell people, hmm? Look at _Aro_, so obviously _not human_." She lifted the girl's chin so she was forced to see him—"Laying in a pool of blood! Don't be ridiculous, _Isabella_.This girl is going to die even if you no longer want to slaughter her to 'save' your husband. So decide."

Rage filled me as she said my name. My full name. She always, always called me _Bella_. She was mocking me. Taunting me with the way Aro said my name. I could kill her.

The girl started crying and trying to scream, she fell back on her ankles and then to the floor where she turned her face into the carpet away from us. They were going to kill her. There wasn't anything I could do about it. I tried to imagine her doing something bad so I could think that maybe she was actually terrible and it would be justifiable, like with the pimps and killers and rapists we'd glutted ourselves on that year on the run, but it was impossible. Her face didn't bear the signs of any malice or trauma. Her soul was undoubtedly as spotless as my own perfect vampire skin. I wondered if she was a virgin. A pure virgin sacrifice to appease a monster.

Me.

"Do it," I said and Sulpicia looked at me so sadly that I knew there must have been some caring for me left in her and I had destroyed the person she knew who would never take an innocent life. Benevolent Bella, turned remorseless in the face of personal tragedy. I was sick to the teeth but I held it in, trying to look sure and steady and like I believed in my decision and accepted its consequences. They were going to kill her anyway and I could just believe it wasn't my fault because _I_ hadn't chosen her. At least her death wouldn't be pointless this way. I wondered if Sulpicia had instructed them to make sure the human was as sweet and innocent as possible to punish me more for what I was doing.

It didn't matter now. I wanted to tell the girl I was sorry, but I couldn't. It was too perverse. I began desperately building up an idea in my head that there was definitely a heaven and she was definitely going there after tonight. Not like Aro and I who were going straight to hell to burn forever with all the other killers like us.

Then I imagined awful things that _could have_ happened to her so I could feel like I was saving her from some worse fate than this one. She would have died in a car accident, partially-decapitated by a sheet of flying metal and left to bleed to death in the middle of a rain-soaked freeway. One in three women were raped or molested so there was a good chance she would be one of them, abused and then branded forever with festering, invisible wounds that would ultimately drive her to take her own life. She would have gotten breast cancer and spent years in surgeries and being injected with corrosive poisons labeled as medicines while her hair fell out and her muscles wasted and she forgot what she even used to look like and feel like before her life became a parade of doctors and diagnoses and looming, inescapable death.

It wasn't enough. But it would do. I didn't look at her again.

I watched as they unpacked the supplies. Stacks of coiled IV tubing. Electrodes. A small defibrillator. Gauze and heavy white fabric tape. Scalpels. A weird tool that looked like a fat white board marker with a tiny bit of filament wire on the end. It was connected to a small box with multiple switches and lights and dials.

And a round metal tray that I knew would carry a fragile heart from a living human girl to the chest of my technically long-dead husband.

"It has to be done very quickly," Hannick said. "We need to transfer the heart immediately after the last of her blood so that it beats until the last second. It needs to stay warm . . ."

Oh God.

I saw him take out a needle and knew it wasn't for Aro, the metal wouldn't pierce his skin. It was for her. A sedative. I sighed. Thank God, she wouldn't be awake at least.

"Don't look so relieved, Bella. It's not what you think it is," Sulpicia said. "It's just a blood thinner. It's better if she's awake, her rapid, _terrified_ heartbeat will move her blood faster. She's going to scream as much as he does."

I wanted to hate her so much for this but I couldn't. For the single reason that she was only acting this way because she cared about Aro and didn't want him to suffer. I couldn't hate someone who loved him.

Hannick approached the bed carrying the little box and marker device.

"What is it?" I couldn't help asking.

"It is a cautery scalpel," he said. He turned one of the dials and the wire tip glowed orange and yellow like the fuse of a lit firework. "It is hot enough to cut through vampire flesh but not to set it on fire. An amazing device." He examined it appreciatively. I hadn't thought about how they were going to get through his skin. I wanted to turn away but Sulpicia was right there suddenly.

"Time to start, Bella. Last chance."

I didn't answer her, I just reached down and grabbed his ankles as firmly as I could. The guard members were holding his arms already. He didn't react to us restraining him. Hannick brought the little glowing wire down to the inside of his wrist. Just before it touched Sulpicia whispered, "Look away and I'll snap your head off."

So I watched as the bright little wire touched his perfect, white skin and opened a small wound there as Hannick pulled it back carefully from the source point. A smell filled the room immediately. It wasn't like the smell of a dead vampire burning. It was something else. Metallic and also like burnt plastic. And dried blood. A forest fire. Aro didn't react and I hoped he was so far under that he was naturally anesthetized. But as the wound in his arm got bigger he twitched, his leg almost came out of my grasp but I held on tighter. Hannick stopped and reached for one of the fat tubes he had laid on the bed when he was unpacking. It had a large plastic tip. Wider by far than any IV I had ever seen. He pressed the tip into the burnt hole and then taped it down.

Okay. One thing down. Not so bad. Aro was still unconscious. Or maybe that was bad? Maybe he was worse, dying and we had waited too long. No. He would be fine. He had to be. Hannick moved around the bed and repeated this grisly procedure. Aro still didn't react. Then Hannick came to me.

"I have to do the ankles," he said. I moved my hands higher and looked ahead, straight at Aro while he did it. Smelling his flesh burning below my face would have to be enough, I figured if I was looking at him at all, Sulpicia wouldn't fault me. I was wrong. I felt a soft, cool hand on the back of my neck. She pushed my head down making me look. Up close I saw the little wire push against his skin, denting it before it burned through. It came apart easily then, showing grey underneath. Hannick inserted the tube and repeated it on the other ankle. I moved back to my position after he left. He went back to the head of the bed and climbed up to kneel beside Aro. Sulpicia still had her hand on my neck and now she was making sure I saw as a new wound was opened in the side of his neck, on a place I had kissed uncountable times and buried my face to smell him and Renesmee had wrapped her arms while she hung off his back, ordering him to carry her wherever she wanted including jumping onto the roof of our house and up into tall trees which I yelled at them for every time while they laughed at me below.

Hannick pressed a tube into the wound and Aro flinched and made a choking sound but didn't open his eyes. Hannick got back down and collected the loose ends of all the tubes over to one side and let them hang there over another metal tray. Then he just stood there, staring at them. I wanted to ask what he was doing but I didn't want to give Sulpicia any more chances to remind me how horrible and selfish she thought I was and I was sure she would be happy to explain it to me in the worst way possible if I said anything.

"Oh, yes, that's about what I expected," Hannick said a minute later. I was annoyed that he sounded a little bit excited. I remembered that he was studying this condition and Aro's surgery was likely just a fascinating experiment to him. I hadn't seen anything change so I wasn't sure what he was talking about until I saw that the tubes had very faintly changed color. I looked down at the ones leaving Aro's ankles and saw that they were opaque with a milky green-ish fluid. It looked thick and was moving slowly.

"What is it?" I had mostly said it to myself in a whisper but Sulpicia answered.

"His venom." She sounded sort of sick herself now and I was sure that this was not what normal venom looked like. This was the evidence of what was happening to him. "It needs to go so it doesn't taint the new blood . . ."

It started to change color after a bit, getting thinner and darker and Hannick quickly produced a set of sturdy white clamps which he used to pinch the tubes shut at the point right where they entered his skin. He pulled more tubing from one of the suitcases and swapped out the original ones which were starting to melt already, shrinking into themselves and collapsing. He did the ankles last this time and I watched as he pulled the rubber end of the tube from the plastic tip and inserted the fresh one. The edges of the plastic were also warped and discolored now.

He knelt on the ground next to the girl.

"She needs to be higher," he said.

Of course, they were going to drain her directly into Aro. They needed gravity.

"Use that," I said. There was a dresser behind me. It was at least a foot and a half taller than the bed.

The guard members let go of Aro's arms cautiously but he didn't move. They dragged the dresser around to the side and lifted the girl onto it. Now I couldn't avoid seeing her even just out of the corner of my eye.

Hannick attached a number of electrodes to her chest and snapped the wires from the heart monitor onto them. He pushed a button below the screen and a steady but rapid beeping sound filled the room, layered perfectly over the sound of her heart which we could already hear, thumping madly in the silence. I wasn't sure why he had done this at all since it seemed pointless to monitor something he could hear but there were numbers off to the side of the spiky green line that was tracking her heart which he was watching carefully. I heard him counting to himself and muttering and finally he turned and motioned to Sulpicia. We needed all of us to hold Aro, she would have to hold the girl.

He quickly moved to install a set of twin wounds in her with a regular blade which he then fitted the opposite ends of Aro's new tubes into. She screamed piercingly but they had left her gag on and I was able to block it out. She flailed on the dresser but Sulpicia held her down without effort. She was staring at the wall looking bored but I had known her long enough to see that she was chewing on the inside of the corner of her mouth which she did when she was nervous about something.

Already there was blood trickling down the tubes as he inserted each one into her arms and legs and neck. They reached the points in Aro's arms and legs and since they didn't back up I assumed it was working. Hannick must have thought so too because he nodded and lifted the tube going to his far arm to increase the angle until there was a steady flow and the tube was a solid red.

As the smell of fresh human blood filled the room all five of us began to shift uncomfortably but held our positions. It would be much worse when her heart had to come out.

The girl continued to scream but we all stood there, silent and as still as only a vampire could be, waiting. Occasionally, Hannick lifted a tube to keep the flow steady. Abruptly, the girl stopped screaming and fell into muttering instead. Nobody had to say that it was time for the worst part. She was losing consciousness and the beeping was slowing down and leveling off from peaks to hills and diving quickly toward the final long, flat tone of death.

This was it, they were going to cut him open. There was no way he'd stay out for this. I didn't want to see it but I didn't turn my head. Sulpicia was watching me closely. Then Hannick stepped onto the bed and straddled Aro. It was too far to reach him from the side. I was intensely relieved but kept my face neutral. Now I couldn't see anything. But it didn't stop me from smelling it. And hearing it. After about twenty seconds of the scalpel burning him, he took a huge panicked breath and then screamed:

My name.

He continued to scream while Hannick worked, alternating between inarticulate noise and sickening pleas for me to help him, to save him, to make it stop. I felt my own chest being cut open, my own heart removed. Sulpicia wasn't giving me dirty looks anymore. I guess she felt I'd finally been punished enough. Finally, Hannick stopped and I saw his hand move off to the side. He set something on the bed. It was mottled grey and purple. A heart. A dead vampire heart. The heart of a three thousand year old man. There was fresh blood smeared on it. So it had worked so far, the blood had traveled to the heart at least. In the midst of this terrible scene my own grey heart jumped in my chest. It was working. Aro stopped screaming and fell to mumbling like the girl. I hoped it wasn't a bad sign.

Hannick turned to the heart monitor, the green line was barely moving and the numbers on the side had dropped from double digits into single ones. I heard him counting again and then he stood to get off the bed and before I could look away, I saw aro with a large, dark wound in his chest. I closed my eyes. If she wanted to kill me, fine. I couldn't look anymore. I heard the gross, wet sounds of them removing the girl's heart. I heard it drop into the pan with a squishy thunk. Then I felt Hannick's weight on the bed again. I kept my eyes closed until I was sure he was seated then opened them cautiously. All I saw was his back. He was working fast now and after a much shorter time than I expected, he told Sulpicia to give him the paddles for the defibrillator. I had seen the big ones on TV but these were small. They looked like barbecue tongs which had been separated at the hinge. Hannick put them in place and I almost wished I could see what was happening now.

He nodded at Sulpicia and she pushed a button on the box that lead to the paddles. A buzz of electricity filled the air. A few seconds later, Aro's legs jumped under my hands. A silence then, again. Nothing. Again. A small thump, then nothing again. It was starting to smell hot like one of those old stove top coil burners that had been left on for too long.

Once more . . .

A new sound filled the room. A low, squishing, rhythmic thud. A human heartbeat. I almost threw my hands up and yelled but I couldn't let go of Aro's legs. We weren't done. I was smiling now and Sulpicia was looking at me with a mixture of sadness and pity. Hannick worked quickly using the gauze and tape. Because now he bled.

When he finally moved, I saw Aro laying there looking unexpectedly serene. His arms were free and I knew I could release his legs but I didn't. Now I wasn't holding him down, I was just holding him. His chest was covered in a field of pristine bandages. I would say they were as white as his skin but his skin wasn't really white anymore. As his new heart pumped blood around his body, color rose to the surface all over, tinting him pink with the soft warm hues of the living. His face was flushed. I felt his skin grow very slightly warm under my fingers. His new heart beat steadily. He appeared to be sleeping.

My efforts to appear calm and stoic shattered and I started sobbing with giant, heaving, tearless gasps. I felt someone pull my hands away and then hug me. A soft someone who smelled like fresh air and sticky sweet tropical flowers. It was Sulpicia. I didn't know why she would hug me. She hated me.

She pushed me back and held my shoulders. "Look at me, Bella."

I did.

"I know you just love him. It was wrong of me to fault you. If someone loved me as much as Aro loves you, I might have done the same to keep him. I'm old enough to know better. I'm sorry. I thought this would fail. You need to believe I'm glad it didn't."

"Will you stay until he wakes up?" I asked. The thought of staying in this house alone just staring at Aro until he opened his eyes was awful.

She said they would have to leave to hunt but would return later and then told me to sit with Aro while they cleared the room. I went to the far side of the bed and laid next to him. I didn't watch as they moved the girl, cleaned and replaced the dresser and repacked and removed all of the equipment all at impossible speed while Aro and I stayed silently in place. Like a movie in time lapse. Everything frantic except for the central figure that stood immobile to emphasize the swiftness of the rest.

I put my face in the slope between his shoulder and his neck and breathed him. He still smelled like Aro but now the tang of human blood was wrapped around it, stitched through it. I didn't know if I liked it. I was relieved to discover I wasn't overwhelmed with the desire to kill him although it wasn't entirely unappealing either. I listened to his heart beating.

And I thought about Edward. He had done this, what I was doing. Laid in my bed near me, smelling my blood, hearing my heart, understanding how fragile I was. I felt a rush of empathy and gratitude. I thought he was being selfish not to change me but as I listened to Aro's new heart and thought about everything he might be able to do now, go outside on a warm day and eat food and experience human life in this century, it made me excited and sad at once. We were separated now. I hadn't thought about it. I hadn't thought about how this would change our lives. I thought I was keeping him but instead I had turned him into something unreachable.

I had saved him, but he was still lost to me.

* * *

END NOTES: Uh. Yeah. So that's how that works, I guess. I had a lot of very interesting feedback about Humuno Syndrome and to be honest I really didn't think it out very well and I'm open to having the concept adopted by anyone who thinks they can expand on it after this fic is done and I can tell you what else I know about it then. (Someone said a werewolf heart would be strong enough to support a vampire body, _genius!)_

As for all of the suspect medical procedures (forgive me, Dani) and complication-less human to vampire organ transplantation we're going to go with:

*´¨)  
¸.•´¸.•*´¨) ¸.•*¨)

(¸.•´ (¸.•` ¤ _VAMPIRE MAGIC!_*´¨)

Because why not? _How does venom even work anyway, Stephenie, huh?_

* * *

Sorry if I never responded to you directly! I'm headed to the doctor to see if I have pneumonia or something so I'm going to use that as excuse.


	4. One More

AN~This short. I hate short chapters. Bleh.

* * *

**4**

Aro had been asleep for a day. Jacob came back in the evening and sat with me in the living room.

"Have you heard from Renesmee?" I asked. I felt strongly that she was okay and it wasn't the first time that I had wondered if she was able to communicate over long distances and if the feelings of peace were coming from her. I wished I could send something back, tell her to come home. Now that the crisis seemed to be over, I thought it was right for her to be here when Aro woke. I knew she would want to be if she knew and I knew Aro would want to see her as well.

Jacob shook his head so slightly you'd think he didn't move but I caught it.

"What about Edward?"

"He came here, huh?"

"Yeah. Yesterday morning."

"And how did he react?"

"You mean to seeing his entire life in pictures laid out in front of him only with someone else's face where his was supposed to be? Not well."

I felt unreasonably terrible suddenly. I didn't plan this, but it was my life and it was a great one. I couldn't regret any of it.

"Well, you can't blame yourself, Bella. You had every reason to believe he was dead. And honestly, you know I never liked him in the first place, but those years in the ground, they certainly didn't do him any good. And after the whole trying to kill us all thing, Aro has treated you as good as you deserve. Better probably."

I swiped at him.

"Exactly as good," he amended. "I'm grateful he was around when we weren't. Not that you need someone to take care of you," he smiled at me, "but you do need someone to love you."

"Yeah, he's alright, I guess." I was grinning stupidly though. "Wait, what are you talking about 'years in the ground'?"

"He didn't tell you?'

"No. We didn't talk for very long . . ."

"Oh. God, yeah, he said that he spent all of that time, or most of it anyway, trying to dig his way out of that pit but it was pretty far down in solid rock so . . ."

"_Oh my God! Are you serious?"_

I hadn't had time to think about how he'd survived and even though I had seen him fall, the idea of being trapped for so long was too horrible to even occur to me as a real possibility.

"Yeah. Pretty fucked up."

"So there could be—"

"Other survivors . . ."

"_Oh my God, Jacob. Fuck_."

"I know. Nobody I know though . . ."

I knew how I was feeling and it must have been worse for him. There could be living members of my vampire family and friends, but no shapeshifter would have survived that, they had to breathe so even if they did live through the seam closing, they would have suffoc—God, no. Don't think about it.

I closed my eyes and listened to Aro's steady, strange heartbeat coming from upstairs. It wasn't exactly like a human heartbeat. It was more like Renesmee's, just off from normal, quick little skipping beats. It was becoming my favorite sound. It was like a lullaby and when I lay next to him, with my hand over his heart, I felt I could almost sleep to the sound of it.

Sulpicia stepped in the back door without knocking. I didn't know where they had been all day but they had left just before dawn that morning. She paused and I knew she was listening for Aro's heartbeat. I stood and we went for the stairs, she followed me, an unspoken communication between us. Jacob didn't follow us. He must have sensed it was private.

At the door to our room, she stopped, she almost looked afraid. I touched her arm, encouraging her. I wanted her to see how well he looked. She came along meekly as I led her to the bed. His eyes were still closed but a fascinating thing had started happening this afternoon: his eyes were moving beneath the lids in jerky little bursts. Rapid eye movement. He was dreaming.

Sulpicia touched his hand and gasped slightly. She hadn't touched him the night before after the change and I knew why she was surprised. He was warm. Not as warm as a normal human, but not cold anymore.

Her face made a quick series of expressions that if it weren't her and if she weren't a vampire, I would say looked like she was trying not to cry.

I was grinning so much I thought the bottom half of my face would come off. Now was the time. When she saw how good he was doing. Now was when I would ask the question I had been forming and rewording all day since she'd gone when I realized we would be forced apart by his new body.

"I need to ask you something and I want you to not kill me after," I said. It wasn't a joke. I really thought she might kill me.

She seemed to sense it wasn't a joke and turned to me, taking her hand off of Aro's.

"This . . . 'treatment' we did. Would it only work on someone with his disease or could you do it to a healthy vampire with the same results?"

I thought she would fly into a rage but she didn't. She didn't even look very surprised and I wondered if she had expected this already, maybe even before _I'd_ thought of it.

"You want to die for him, Bella?"

"I don't want to live without him," I said. "And he can go places and do things I can't now. I've seen his skin in the sunlight. He can go outside. He can eat human food. This thing separates us . . ."

"If I did this, he would hate me. He'll forgive us for what we did to him. But, Bella, if I take your life away, he will hate me forever."

"Well, he's not going to live forever anymore," I said frankly. "If he lives for a year, I want it to be the best year possible and I can't make that happen, I can't be there for it as I am now. I want to go with him, Sulpicia. Please, make it possible for me to spend the last year of my husband's life with him. I should get to choose how I want to die."

"You know we couldn't sedate you either."

"I know."

"And while he was mostly unconscious due to the illness, you wouldn't be. It'll be worse."

"I've already thought about this. I wouldn't put him through something I wouldn't do myself."

She squinted at me. I thought I saw respect there. And a look that told me she thought I had no idea what I was agreeing to.

"Okay, Bella. If this is what you want . . ."

I was shocked. I hadn't expected her to consent so readily.

"Why are you letting me do this?"

"Because even if Aro hates me, he'd hate being without you more. My refusal would be _me_ separating you. So I'll do this thing for you because he needs you more than he needs me." She sounded sadder than I'd ever heard her. She loved him as much as I did only he was her twin, her mirror, opposites but a reflection not a contradiction.

"I will find a person," I said immediately. She nodded.

"We need to do this tonight, Bella. I'm sorry, I know I said I would stay but there's been some trouble and I'm afraid we need to go take care of something."

I raised my eyebrows.

"Just vampire business," she said dismissively. "Never seems to change . . ."

Aro was still sleeping several hours later when we had all gathered once again, only in the bedroom opposite the one where Aro lay. It was a strange repeat of the operation on Aro only the bed was clean and the air less tense. A man in a hospital gown lay on the dresser the two guard members had pulled in from the next room.

His name was Arthur Mackie and he had a very large tumor in his brain. He was just waiting to die and had been in a vegetative state for two weeks according to his chart. I went to three hospitals and two hospices before I found him. He was perfect. He wouldn't wake and he was alive enough to supply me with blood and a heart. And he was only twenty-seven. A young heart. Hopefully not riddled with the cancer that destroyed his brain. Dying of cancer now would be so ridiculously tragic it would almost be funny.

Sulpicia was holding my ankles like I had held Aro's. No one needed to hold Arthur because he didn't move. I smiled at her gratefully and she just shook her head, still not convinced of the brilliance of this decision. But I was happy. This was right. I knew it.

I closed my eyes, thinking I could simply block it out when they started. Until the cautery scalpel touched my wrist. Now I knew just how delirious Aro must have been because the agony I experienced when it started to cut into my skin felt like my bones had caught fire and were burning their way out of my body. I knew I was screaming but the sound was so loud it was almost like silence. It was too loud to register as sound. Finally, Hannick inserted the tube and went to my other arm. I braced myself. Surely, surely now that I knew, it wouldn't be as bad.

But it was. Just as bad. But not worse. My ankles were the same and then when he did my neck I almost threw him off with my flailing and he had to hold my jaw in place while he did it. I lay in a drowsy trance after that, smelling my own melted flesh as Hannick fiddled with the tubes. I thought he was working on Arthur and I hoped he would hurry because I knew what was coming and I wanted it to be over. But he wasn't and I suddenly felt an extremely uncomfortable pulling sensation at all five of the points where the tubes protruded from my body. I didn't know what was happening. I looked at Sulpicia, panicked.

"You have too much healthy venom in your body, so we have to drain you as well," she explained. "If we gave you blood now, you would just convert it and it would be pointless. So we're manually doing what the disease did to Aro. Sort of. This part will take longer for you. That's your venom," she finished nodding to the tubes. A bright green, slightly viscous fluid was snaking down the tubes rapidly. I smelled it as it left to wherever Hannick was draining it. It smelled like sunflowers to me for some reason. Or I was becoming delirious because I felt my head start to become heavy and my eyelids droop. It hadn't seemed to take very long at all . . .

I heard Sulpicia quickly yell at Hannick that it was enough. I saw him stand and look at me. I felt weak pressure on the wounds as he swapped out the tubes. I just wanted to close my eyes but Sulpicia's fingers gouged into my legs.

"No, Bella. Not a good idea to die on me now. Just keep your eyes open."

"Okay," I said dreamily. Anything. It was all okay now.

And in no time at all, I felt Hannick step onto the bed above me. Had he done Arthur's tubes already? That was only four or five seconds ago that he was draining mine, right? Hannick sat, and even though I could tell he was holding his weight off of me, he was uncomfortably heavy. That's when I knew how weak I was. But I barely had time to register this before I again smelled that burning smell and the pain I had experienced before. Only deeper. But also duller. I wondered if my vampire body and its enhanced sensations had made the pain more acute.

It may have been slightly duller but it went on longer and had more depth and I was lost in it. Now I understood Aro's screams. I felt like I was being taken into some dark, terrible place all alone where I would be trapped forever with no one who loved me and no one to see or speak to or touch. This is why he was calling for me. I felt sick that I had subjected him to this. I hoped he wouldn't remember it. Then a deep, nauseating wrenching feeling and I saw, with grotesque fascination that Hannick was holding my heart. It was a lighter grey than Aro's had been but comfortingly streaked with wet, red human blood. It was working, my body hadn't changed it. He set it aside and I felt the damp, stale air of the room rush into my open chest cavity when he moved away. I saw Sulpicia standing at the end of the bed still, her hands on my ankles. I smiled at her sleepily, trying to convey my gratitude and that I felt she had done the right thing.

Then our faces both changed at once to terror as a sound came from across the hall: Aro's voice. Calling my name. He was awake.

"Go, Sulpicia! Don't let him see this! I don't need to you hold me now!"

She was gone in a second, shutting the door behind her.

But I still heard him. "Isabella? My heart . . . _my heart_. Oh _God_ . . ."

He sounded afraid and it hurt me. But it would be okay soon. I closed my eyes and waited for my own brand new heart to beat inside of my chest so that I could join him and we could live for one more year before we died.

One year together.

That was always the deal anyway.

* * *

END NOTES: Soooo, been working on my Charlo story instead of this. That's gone into overtime so to speak and I'm writing the sequel to that now so the updates to this will probably stay sort of slow for a bit. Sorry about that, I know it's so easy to lose the thread of the story that way but the muse dictates I'm afraid.

I'm interested to know if anyone else had this same idea about Bella changing. It just seemed like the natural thing for her to do because, well, she's _Bella_.

* * *

One last thing, I had a review from a reader who said their primary language wasn't English and apologized if the review was a little hard to read. It was totally fine, however, I do know enough French, Spanish and Italian to understand most things and I can understand to a lesser degree (and help from Google translate) German, Japanese and Portuguese. Anyway, I love languages and I need practice so, please, if any of those are your native language write in that if you like. I'd love it. (Or any language really, I guess. I'll figure it out!)


	5. A House of Beating Hearts

**5**

I woke to the sound of someone crying.

I was still so tired it hurt to even open my eyes but I couldn't ignore that sound, which was really more of a heavy, damp sobbing. It sounded like a man and it sounded near.

As I rose reluctantly from this new kind of sleep I understood what Sulpicia had been trying to tell me when she said these hearts wouldn't support our vampires bodies for long. It took concentrated effort to move and I hope that this was just an initial state of fatigue and it would become easier. I did this so we could have a life together, not sit on the couch trying to hold our heads up straight.

A warm hand was resting over the place where my new heart beat steadily in my chest. I lifted my own hand it was like moving through water. The air resisted me but I brought it up and placed it over that hand. The crying halted with a wet gasp.

"Isabella?"

Another hand came up to my face, grazing my cheek and my forehead, brushing stray hair back away from my face.

I tired to speak but I couldn't. My throat felt lined with steel wool. The hand moved to the back of my neck and lifted my head. Cool glass touched my mouth and for the first time in more than a quarter of a century, I drank something which wasn't blood. I didn't even know what it was. Some kind of juice. I hadn't paid a lot of attention to what humans ate now or how it had evolved since I had been one. I used to know what Renesmee and Jacob liked to eat but since they had moved out, I had lost track of things. The only food in our house was what they left behind on their visits although someone must have visited a store because there was only blood in the fridge the last time I was conscious.

I swallowed and then moved my head slightly to indicate I was done. Two hands now cupped my face.

"Isabella."

I focused on opening my eyes. I knew the voice only it was slightly different, rougher. I wanted to see his face. See what changes may have occurred in it since he woke and with my new, non-vampire vision. I squinted at the light in the room even though it was dim and blinked a few times before I could open my eyes all the way. Even then it hurt to move them. I felt a little like I was just getting over the kind of high fever associated with the flu.

And there he was, sitting on the side of my bed. My husband. My Aro. He was still beautiful. The way he looked reminded me of Renesmee now. Flawless vampire skin with a flush of human color underneath. Except for his cheeks which were burned by his tears and had that hot pink slapped look to them.

He looked miserable. I wondered how long he'd been crying. Crying! Real human tears. Salty, clear, non-bloody human tears!

I reached for his face and he brought it down closer to meet my hand. He must know how much effort it was taking for me to move.

"Aro . . . your eyes are green . . ." I said and then my head grew very heavy and I fell asleep again.

I thought I heard him say, "_Why _did you do this?" In a watery voice but I couldn't answer.

* * *

When I woke again, I was able to sit up but I still felt weak. My room was empty but this time I noted that the bed was clean and I was wearing fresh pajamas. My pants had cupcakes on them so I knew it was Aro that changed me.

I called his name. My voice was so strained and light I was sure he couldn't have heard me without vampiric hearing but a few seconds later I heard footsteps in the hallway and he came into the room wearing a frightened expression. Jacob appeared behind him but stayed in the doorway as Aro came forward. Jacob must have heard me and told him.

Aro sat but didn't touch me, like he was afraid to. I reached for him and he moved closer.

"I'm sorry, I meant to be here when you woke up."

"It's okay. I wasn't there when you woke up . . ."

He looked upset and I wondered if someone had told him he'd woken up right in the middle of surgery.

Jacob was shuffling around looking uncomfortable then said, "I'm going to go back downstairs, just wanted to see how you were doing." He smiled at us a little sadly and left, closing the door behind him.

"So he knows then? I mean, that we're not going to . . . live?"

"He knows what Sulpicia told us before she left." His face looked dark and unhappy. "Oh, Isabella, why did you do this?" He put his hand over his mouth and looked like he might cry again.

"I'm sorry! You were going to die! I couldn't let you die. It was selfish."

"No, not to me. I will do anything you ask, endure anything for you so you can have what you want. Why did you do this yourself? I don't want you to die . . ." He stopped, breathing in shakily then placed his hand over my heart, tracing his fingers down the length of the thin, wet scar that cleaved my chest.

"Because I didn't want you to be alone and I wanted us to be together for as much time as you have."

"We could have been. You didn't have to do _this!_" He was almost shouting at me. Something he hadn't ever done.

"Really? While you go out into the sunlight? Eat human food? Where I have to listen to your heart everyday as it weakens. Like a ticking death clock reminding every single second that you're going to die?"

He looked away.

"We can be together this way," I said softer. "We can experience a new world together. Please, forgive me. We have a deadline for happiness now, I can't undo this so let's be happy we're together."

He closed his eyes and reached out again to touch my chest. "It's just . . . your heart," he said.

I put my own hands on his before he could take it away.

"Please don't hate me," I said.

He looked hurt. "I couldn't ever hate you."

He pulled me to him and kissed me. I had wondered if the sensation might be different, less, now that we weren't vampires but I was relieved to find that kissing him held the same physical and emotional power as it always had. It was us that made it wonderful, not the venom. I suddenly had energy I wasn't aware of course through me and I fell back on the bed, dragging him with me. He stopped me when I started trying to undress him a little clumsily.

"Bella, you're not really . . . well yet," he said but he didn't sound convinced and the moan that cut through the middle of him words conveyed that he had less conviction about not doing this than what he said suggested.

"I'm fine, really. I missed you. The last time we were apart this long was when . . . you left Paris that time. Please, be with me now," I said and felt him relax when my hands slipped up under his shirt.

His reluctance disappeared as we undressed each other and it was obvious he was as interested as I was in seeing what this would be like now. He removed my clothes carefully, like he thought I might break. I wasn't nearly as gentle with him but he didn't complain. We slowed down when we were both naked and again he sadly ran his fingers over my scar. His was pinker and larger. He'd had less healthy venom to help him heal.

It was awkward because our bodies were so heavy. Every sensation was altered. He was warmer than I was. More human than I was. I wondered if I might actually die before he did because my body would be harder to support.

He paused just after we had started and looking extremely embarrassed said, "I apparently am lacking the control I used to have so I don't think this is going to last for very long . . ."

"I don't care."

I thought he still tried to prolong it but I was concentrating more on the miracle of being with him again at all to really think about trying for a climax of any kind. He rolled to the side after, pulling me against him and lay there with his eye closed for a long time.

"Okay. Well, that's a little different. A lot different, actually."

"Disappointing, huh?"

"What? No, it was perfect. New. I want to do it again but I'm . . . too _tired_."

"Yeah, me too. I was hoping that would wear off. How long have I been out?"

"About two days."

"Have you been really tired?"

"Not particularly. I mean, everything's harder. I almost fell down the stairs because I didn't realize that I'm now doing an imitation of you as a human."

"So it's just doing it with me that makes you tired?"

"I guess so. Surprised I can do it at all, I am three thousand years old, after all."

"You're still crazy hot though."

"Even with my grey hair?"

I hadn't really noticed but his hair was greying more than what it was before.

"Yeah, man. Totally hot still."

"What are were going to do now, Isabella?"

"Anything we want. Have you gone outside yet?"

"No. I was . . . sort of afraid to."

"Do you want to go out right now?"

"We should probably put clothes on."

"I guess. And we have to like walk downstairs. No more jumping out the window . . ."

"We didn't really do that that often anyway."

"We haven't really taken advantage of being vampires these last few years I guess . . "

"Well we went a little overboard that first year."

"Yeah. That was madness. Great sex though."

"God, yes. I couldn't think about anything but taking your clothes off for those first few months."

"What were you thinking about during the other ones?"

"I was still thinking that but also about how I was going to force you to fall in love with me somehow."

"And you didn't even have to try so hard because I was already in love with you."

"Well, you were bad at showing it."

"I'm going to go with you were bad at spotting it. Also my temp tattoos keep coming off."

"Hmm. What were they?"

"They were like this gnarly design with barbed wire and roses and a skull with a banner that said, 'A+B = 4 ever.'"

"And where did you have these placed?"

"Right on my ass. Duh."

"Well now I know you're lying because I expended a great deal of energy in the study of that particular body part and I definitely would have seen something like that."

"Well, I was thinking it. Subconsciously."

"Isabella, I think we should go back to Forks."

"What? You want to waste the last months of our lives hanging out in the most boring place ever?"

"I keep thinking about Edward. And wondering if there's anyone else down there."

"Yeah, I thought about that too. I don't really know who fell . . ."

"Yes. Anyone could be . . ."

"But we couldn't reach them now. We're not strong enough."

"There are electronics that can detect objects in the ground. Jacob and I found out about them online. We could take one there. It would certainly pick up something as dense as a vampire . . ."

"So you've already been researching this while I was asleep?"

"Yes. You need special training but I could just find someone who knows and read their mind and that would—what?"

"Sulpicia said you probably wouldn't be able to read minds . . . I'm sorry."

"Oh. I hadn't considered. I guess that would complicate things. We'll figure it out."

"You're not upset?"

"Well we don't know anything yet so . . ."

"So let's just start by going outside . . ."

We got dressed. I needed him to help me stand for a few minutes and then help be down the stairs. Jacob looked a little emotional when he saw me and gave me a hug that was a little too hard. When I protested he laughed and said it would be weird having to be careful with me again.

"We're going to go outside."

"Right. No more sparkles. Weird."

Aro took my hand and led me to the door. We paused there, looking out into the yard. It was overcast so there wasn't really any sun but we went out anyway. It was interesting just to breathe in the air and see the sky. Everything was different. I couldn't really tell if it was different than being human before but it felt like it. It still felt like vampire senses but muted. Probably like what humans felt like while they were high.

"It's pretty. Different."

"Yes. You're pretty," he said. He was staring at me and not at the world around us.

"So you still like me even though I had your heart literally cut out of your chest?"

"This will be the second time you've ripped my heart out. It ended up being worth it the first time, I can't imagine it will be much different this time."

"God, you're such a dork."

"I will gladly own that title if it means I can continue to follow you around embarrassing you with language like that."

"Go right ahead. Have you tried eating anything yet?"

"No. I was afraid to . . ."

"You were afraid to eat?"

"Yes. Eating leads to . . . things I'm not ready for."

"Like?"

"Have you forgotten how human bodies process food?"

"Oooh. Yeah. I was sort of glad to be done with that. But we're not human so . . ."

"Yes, I don't know. Experiment, I guess. Did Sulpicia tell you anything else?"

"Not really. Nobody really knows anything else. I'm pretty sure we're the fir—"

I stopped, staring at the corner of the yard. Aro followed my gaze. Renesmee. I would have ran to her but I knew I would fall if I tried. I called instead and she raced to us.

She looked like she was going to hug me but she stopped suddenly a few feet away, looking at us both with something like fear.

"Mom?"

"Hi, Ness. I guess we have some things to talk about . . ."

"Yeah. Um, I saw dad. He said he was coming to see you."

"He was here. We'll get to that."

Like we were in the middle of some ridiculous movie, the clouds drew back suddenly. The sun hit us directly. I looked down at my arms. I was pale but it wore like a very white statue now. I wasn't sparkling. I looked at Aro and he was doing the same as me, turning his hands over and touching his face even though he couldn't see it.

"It must be the blood. I mean, our skin is still the same so . . ."

Renesmee looked even more afraid now.

"So, we're not exactly vampires anymore, sweetie."

"I don't understand."

"Well, we'll explain. We should go inside."

"Wait," Aro said, putting his hand on my arm. "Renesmee, can I . . .?" He was holding out his hand.

"Um, I don't . . ."

He didn't usually ask to read the minds of people close to him. Especially Renesmee as she got older. Since she was a daughter to him, he didn't want to know about anything which happened between her and any boys although he was tempted to look after her first break-up and I had to stop him from finding out what had happened and then going to snap that unfortunate boy's neck for making his precious baby cry.

"Sulpicia says I might not be able to . . ."

"Oh."

"I'll just look for a second and let go if I see anything. Unless you're not comfortable."

"No, that sounds fine."

I watched her step forward and give him her hand. He took and stared at it for a second and then smiled and shook his head.

"No. Nothing. There's nothing. It's quiet."

He laughed a little and then hugged her. He took her face in his hands and looked a little bit like he might cry again.

"I love you, Renesmee."

"I love you, too, ED."

About a year after we all settled down, Renesmee had started affectionately calling Aro "Evil Dad" which was quickly shortened to "ED" which Jacob pointed out was also the abbreviation for "Erectile Dysfunction" but it was too late to change it and Aro couldn't say no to her so it stayed. But I got Jacob back anytime I could by talking very pointedly about how Aro was definitely _not_ in that category and making somewhat lewd gestures to suggest certain sexual acts and their very prolonged nature and he absolutely regretted having a big mouth after that.

I came forward and hugged her as well.

"I have something to tell you, actually."

"Jacob said you were missing. He scared me but said he thought you were okay . . ."

"I am okay. Better than okay, actually. I'm engaged!"

She held up her hand to display a rather ostentatious ring with a large diamond in it.

"Oh, um, wow. That's an impressive ring. So, he's wealthy, I guess?"

"We're not going to worry about money."

"Okay. Well, Jacob didn't seem very happy about this . . ."

"No, he isn't. But you know he's overprotective so . . ."

"That's true. But he's not irrational. So there's something wrong, isn't there? Does your fiance know what you are?"

"He knows."

"So he knows about your parents then as well?"

"Yes, he knows about you. He . . . knows you."

We didn't know a lot of people and I was certain she wouldn't have told a human even if she did have the ability to turn him. I think I knew even before he stepped into view. I know I felt sick before I saw him. He was wearing all black like when I knew him before and he was pale, like all vampires, but his hair, so blond it was nearly white, enhanced the effect making him ghostly. I didn't know what I was going to say but I opened my mouth anyway and nothing came out. It was Aro who named him.

"Vladimir."

I looked back at Renesmee who was looking a little desperate. Vladimir sped to us and stopped about ten feet off and then walked the rest of the way in. He looked us both over carefully.

"My, there are quite a lot of heartbeats around here today . . ."

He didn't appear hostile toward either of us but I didn't see how this development could be anything but bad news.

* * *

END NOTES: Okaaaaaaay. Welp, that was the last drafted chapter and I have basically _no_ idea what's going to happen now. *nervous laugh* I'm _really_ hoping Vlad's got the answers . . .

But, while you wait, you can go on over to fictionpress and read the first chapter of one of my original novels! Won't that be . . . fun . . .?

And wow, this stupid website doesn't even allow links to_ its_ _own sister site!_ Sigh. My author name is CharlieThomas and the book is called _Antony & Juno. _Sorry for the extra work involved in getting to it._  
_

* * *

Also . . .

_"This will be the second time you've ripped my heart out. It ended up being worth it the first time, I can't imagine it will be much different this time."_

Oh,_ Aro_. You're just so . . . _you_. I will love your pasty little face until the day I die.


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